The Science of Android Messaging: What is RCS?

I recently did an article detailing how I message my friends and family on android.  In that article it was obvious that my best option was the third-party app: Whatsapp.  Google has been trying for years to fix default messaging on Android so I wouldn't have to use a third-party app.  Their attempts have ranged from the OK experience with Hangouts to the dumpster-fire that was Allo and with all these apps google hasn't fixed messaging.  Now google has given us a new hope with the name of Rich Communication Services or RCS standard.  This is supposed to help Android messaging be better by allowing users to send high-res photos and video along with indicators to help you track your message from when it gets sent to when the other person has read it.  It even has a hangouts-style bubble to show you when your recipient is responding.  This all sounds great but how does this standard work?

RCS explanation

So how does RCS work?  RCS works by allowing people who have the feature enabled on their texting apps that support it (google and Samsung messages just to name a few) to send the RCS text instead of a regular SMS text.  The first hurdle your phone needs to clear is to make sure your carrier supports RCS and you have it enabled(Google has a big billboard on their RCS landing page detailing which carriers support it).  Once you enable RCS on your phone anyone else with RCS enabled on their phone will get the RCS text message, if they don't have RCS enabled or if their OS doesn't support it they will receive a standard SMS.  This extra hurdle of making sure your recipient has RCS enabled is very frustrating because most people haven't enabled it and if your texting someone who uses an iphone your out of luck.  RCS is offered by the carriers therefore it uses the same procedures as SMS which means no encryption in your messages.  No encryption is also a hurdle as many people would't use SMS since it's not encrypted.  I fear that if consumers are already invested in third-party messaging RCS won't be adopted because it has no encryption, I hope Google can fix this.  Until then you can think of RCS as a partial-upgrade to SMS sent to you by the carriers and Google.

The potential of RCS

You probably don't need me to tell you that RCS has a lot of potential, but with a few adjustments RCS can level the messaging playing field.  One of the best things RCS can do is replace SMS, if RCS can replace SMS it can improve the default messaging experience on android phones and the cross-platform messaging experience on well.....yeah.....iphones.  If RCS eventually does replace SMS Apple will have no choice but to support it as the new and improved green bubble on imessage.  If the green bubble becomes better via RCS it can help people switch from Android to IOS freely knowing that the messaging experience will be great either way.  Another potential improvement of SMS would be encryption.  Encryption in RCS could give Android users a way to securely text their friends without going through the hassle of a third-party messaging app.   I perfer the style of RCS to third-party apps.  Most of the hype has been dedicated to make RCS seem as an immesage for android but I don't see it that way.  I see RCS not as an Android "immessage" but as a way to break the barriers between operating systems and improve messaging for everyone.